AI Insight
This study examined how climate-related emotions lead to either responsible consumption or impulsive buying through different moral pathways. Using survey data from 582 Turkish consumers and follow-up interviews, researchers found that climate anxiety can trigger moral disengagement leading to impulsive purchases, while eco-grief promotes moral obligation and eco-conscious behavior. Solastalgia, or distress from environmental change in one's home environment, strengthened the anxiety-to-disengagement pathway and weakened the grief-to-obligation pathway.
Why it matters
The findings reveal that climate emotions do not automatically produce environmentally responsible behavior, but instead depend on whether they activate moral obligation or moral disengagement. This suggests interventions should focus on strengthening moral self-regulation and perceived agency to channel climate distress toward constructive action rather than escapist consumption.
Understand the Science
IntroductionClimate-related distress can support responsible consumption or coincide with affect-driven escape, yet the moral processes underlying these divergent responses remain unclear. This study develops and tests a dual-route framework in which moral disengagement (MD) and moral obligation (MO) link climate-change anxiety (CCA) and eco-grief (EG) with affective impulsive buying (AIB) and eco-conscious behavior (ECB), while solastalgia (BS) conditions key emotion-to-moral-processing associations.MethodsAn explanatory sequential mixed-methods design combined a cross-sectional survey of 582 adult consumers in Türkiye with semi-structured interviews conducted approximately 1 month later with 26 participants. Survey data were analyzed using PLS-SEM, and interview data were examined through codebook thematic analysis.ResultsCCA was positively associated with MD and MO, whereas EG was positively associated with MO and negatively associated with MD. MD was positively associated with AIB, while MO was positively associated with ECB. The corresponding indirect associations were significant. BS strengthened the CCA–MD association and weakened the EG–MO association, with significant moderated indirect associations in the expected directions. The qualitative findings clarified these relationships through patterns of rationalization, perceived agency, reparative action, affective consumption, and place-based stewardship.DiscussionThe findings challenge accounts that assign fixed behavioral consequences to climate emotions. Their behavioral relevance appears to depend on the moral process associated with them, while place-based distress alters the strength of these routes. The study identifies moral self-regulation and perceived agency as promising targets for future experimental research.
Source: Climate distress at a moral crossroads: how solastalgia conditions divergent consumer responses